Anyone have blood pressure problems?

[Delias]

It is november now, so I am allowed, according to myself, to post new threads again. This one actually has a purpose, though.

I've been having some pretty horrendous dizzy spells, seemingly out of nowhere lately. My mother suggested I take my blood pressure, so I've been monitoring it for the last week. I was wondering if anyone had any idea if this was bad:

Highest was 169/80, lowest was 154/90, average seems to be about 160/90 or so. Resting heart rate is pretty steady right around 60, if that matters.

Trying to decide if this is worth seeing a doctor about, or if his input will be "stop eating salt and lose weight, fatty."
(I don't add salt to things. The fatty part still applies.)

Thanks, anyone contributing anything useful.

[PoBoy]

Anything above 140/90 is considered elevated. Some people are more prone to symptoms that others. Such as dizzy spells, exspecialy when standing up.

High blood pressure plus dizzy spells is a good reason to see your doctor. You should also have your cholestorol checked while there.

Qualifications for saying this? I have both high LDL cholestorol and high blood pressure. Not to mention a wife who is a RN that constantly harps on this. I blame the blood pressure on her.

[Sean]

the bottom number is more important.

[4a6c1]

Yes. Mine is hereditary from my Dads side. I get all the terribad symptoms. Mostly I can control it with excessive cardio, L-Arginine and when I hit a plateau and start getting migraines I'll do a 'tox wash' where I replace 2 meals a day with veggie shakes for a week. It confuses my system long enough for me to hit another adrenaline peak with cardio. I think as long as my veins are working really hard to pump blood to my heart they forget about making me miserable. My veins are the enemy.

I should probably just take blood pressure medication like a normal person.

[Willington]

I had a problem with bein dizzy then 1 day i passed out a couple times at work.Wich isnt good when your up a few bucks on scaffolding.

I had to cut salt out of my diet and take meds.If you think you have it go see a Doc soon,its nothing to play around with

[PoBoy]

If your doctor wants you to cut out or down on your salt intake ask him/her about sea salt. Sea salt, to me, has a stronger salt taste than regular salt. It keeps you from putting so much on your food. It is also supposed to be a healthier type of salt.

[LMingrone]

Go see a doc. I have BP that's way above normal, and they put me on two meds to keep it down. After seeing my dad almost die of a massive heart problem, it scared the shit out of me enough to go see a doctor (I hate doctors).

I try to go for a run every morning, try to keep my stress down, and have been fixing my diet. Also, go buy a BP monitor at Walgreens or something and see if there's any correlation with anything you're doing on a normal basis.

TLDR See a doc, work out, eat better.

[Skeeter]

If you're a fatty lose some weight. Will cure 90% of BP issues.

If you're not a fatty go to the doctor.

[Sean]

I never wanted to take the pills or see the doctor about mine until one day it spiked so high well I was at work that my nose started bleeding so bad that it wouldn't stop so I had to goto the ER to get it taken care of and when I went back a few days later to have the pack removed it was still bleeding so they admitted me and had to lower my BP. So not going to the doctor or take pills ended up costing me a few grand and a couple of days that I had to be stuck in a boring hospital with some old dying man next to me. I recommend just going to the doctor now and getting pills.

In addition to salt you should also cut out caffine.

[Gnome Rage]

Good luck. I don't even have high HP but I have to take cold medicine for high BP because my medicine can make me have palpitations or something like that. It works for the first day you're on it and then its like pfft I don't wanna work anymore.

I imagine being sick with high BP would suck largely.

[Latrinsorm]

its nothing to play around withThis, for sure.

[Delias]

Alright, I'll make an appointment. As far as salt goes, I am really not much for salt... I never add it to things. Anyway, still seems to be hovering in the same range, so I guess I'll make a call.

[Cephalopod]

Alright, I'll make an appointment. As far as salt goes, I am really not much for salt... I never add it to things. Anyway, still seems to be hovering in the same range, so I guess I'll make a call.

You know where you get a lot of salt from? Going down on women with yeast infections. Just sayin'.

[Sean]

I imagine being sick with high BP would suck largely.

You take a few pills a day and that's it and if you're not willing to loose weight or change your diet you just take more pills. Having HBP really isn't that big a deal once you're treating it.

[Gnome Rage]

Yeah but you can't take like, good cold medicine. Or at least, I can't so I have to take the HBP medicine.

[Stanley Burrell]

That's really not too terrible. If you're that concerned, do a stress test. Maybe check out HDL and LDL levels and maybe go for a blood glucose test. What's your iron and water intake like?

[Beguiler]

I've been on BP meds for years. It might help to know that as of a couple years ago the guidelines for blood pressure have changed, with the new definition being normal as less than 120/less than 80 mm, and moderate high blood pressure being in the 140/90 range.

I exercise, watch my diet, struggle with salt, and my 'normal' BP is roughly 105/60, pulse 54.

I watched a nice woman stroke out at work (and die later that week) at 56 because she didn't think it was bad enough to see a doctor, but she'd snitch one of her husband's BP pills now and again. We all told her 'see a doctor'. She did, too late. Advice about losing weight, watching sodium, eating right, exercise are all good. But even if you're doing all that, STILL go see your doctor. Could be as simple as an inner ear proble, but high BP can kill you.

/rant